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Stephen Daisley

Stephen Daisley

The Spectator

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HMRC has failed Britain’s poor

Today we are witnessing a significant failure of the UK state. The personal finance campaigner Martin Lewis reports that around 30 per cent of...

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Matheson’s suspension has come at a terrible time for the SNP

The Scottish parliament has voted to suspend former SNP cabinet minister Michael Matheson for 27 sitting days and dock his salary for 54 calendar...

29.05.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Which seats are the Scottish Tories targeting in the election?

The Scottish Conservatives were facing a difficult election this summer but SNP leader John Swinney may have thrown them a lifeline. In choosing to...

27.05.2024 50

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

John Swinney is making a mess of the SNP’s election campaign

Humza Yousaf lasted just over 400 days as SNP leader. Will his replacement John Swinney get that far? The question arises so soon into his tenure...

24.05.2024 40

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Stop children from suffering when their parents go to jail

Writing about the impact on children of having a parent in prison, you always hit the same brick wall: no one knows how many children have a parent in...

22.05.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The problem with ‘international law’

The application for arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant is an act of lawfare. In...

21.05.2024 50

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Roz Adams’s tribunal win is a victory for liberty

As the edifice of gender identity ideology continues to crumble, along comes another example of an institution not only captured but utterly distorted...

20.05.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Why are Scottish nationalists so thin-skinned?

Scottish nationalists are not happy. What’s new, I hear you ask. Did they lose another leader? Has Sainsbury’s been selling Somerset strawberries...

15.05.2024 40

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Swinney-Forbes should get the basics right

John Swinney, Scotland’s new first minister, has appointed his inaugural cabinet – and it’s almost unaltered from the team headed by Humza...

08.05.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Holyrood needs Kate Forbes

There are a number of very good reasons that Kate Forbes is not standing for SNP leader. Chief amongst them is that she’d lose again. John Swinney...

02.05.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Sadiq Khan should be ashamed of his attack on the Chief Rabbi

A while back, Lee Anderson got himself into trouble for claiming Islamists had ‘got control’ of Sadiq Khan. Levelling said charge at London’s...

26.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Scotland / Humza Yousaf ends SNP pact with Greens

After two and a half years in government together, Humza Yousaf has terminated the SNP’s governing pact with the Scottish Greens. The decision was...

25.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Could this be the Scottish Greens’ tuition fees moment?

Questions of power bedevil radical politics. Is entry into government the only way to force change? Do the opportunities of power sufficiently...

20.04.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Thwarting Iran’s attack was not a ‘win’ for Israel

‘You got a win. Take the win.’ This is reportedly what US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call...

15.04.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Netanyahu cannot afford hot war with Iran

Iran’s drone attack on Israel is an escalation from the fiery but ultimately empty rhetoric we are used to from Tehran. In different times and with...

14.04.2024 9

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Have Scottish politicians read the Cass Review?

The Cass Review may prove to be a tipping point in radical gender ideology’s march through mainstream politics, institutions and civil society. It...

11.04.2024 8

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Don’t feel too encouraged by police leniency with JK Rowling

Police Scotland, who are responsible for enforcing Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act, have found no criminality in a series of tweets posted by JK...

02.04.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

How Scotland ended up with the Hate Crime Act

Humza Yousaf’s illiberal Hate Crime Act is now in force and its first day has been a doozy. The SNP’s minister for victims and community safety...

01.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Why did the Scottish government make allowances for Spain during Covid?

The Covid Inquiry’s recent Scottish sojourn brought several weeks of bad headlines for the SNP. One revelation got less attention than others but...

24.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Cameron is wrong to threaten Israel with an arms embargo

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron is threatening to suspend arms sales to Israel. The Telegraph reports that the former prime minister...

23.03.2024 6

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The hubris of Scotland’s lofty Net Zero targets

Scotland’s climate goals are ‘no longer credible’ and there is ‘no comprehensive strategy’ to move away from carbon to Net Zero. That is the...

20.03.2024 8

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

How to fix the elites

Few things get the British quite as worked up as private schools. To the left, they are factories of inequality that turn scions of privilege into the...

19.03.2024 4

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Israel’s ‘allies’ should reckon with reality

Everyone wants an end to the fighting in Gaza. The United States backs ‘an immediate and sustained ceasefire’. The European Commission urges ‘an...

18.03.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Will NHS Scotland follow suit and ban puberty blockers?

The decision by NHS England to end the prescription of puberty blockers to minors at gender identity clinics will be a source of relief to those who...

13.03.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The revolution has devoured AOC

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the super-progressive congresswoman, was leaving the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn with her fiancé when she was confronted by...

06.03.2024 6

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Vulnerable children don’t belong in jail

Britain’s prisons brim with vulnerable people but perhaps the most vulnerable are children. At 30 September 2023, there were 301 children in prison...

05.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

One thing the Tories can learn from Canada’s conservatives

When contemplating the scale of the Tories’ expected drubbing in the coming general election, some commentators reach for the example of Canada’s...

29.02.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Britain’s politicians should never bow to a mob

The government and the SNP are furious at the Speaker over his parliamentary jiggery-pokery on the Gaza vote. In calling Labour’s amendment to an...

22.02.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Defacing Amy Winehouse’s statue is anti-Semitic

It’s not about Jews, it’s about Zionism. It’s not anti-Semitism, it’s pro-Palestinianism. It’s not racism, it’s social justice.  These...

19.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Britain’s Jews aren’t safe

The explosion of hatred and extremism prompted by the October 7 massacre was never going to limit itself to the Jewish state. Even as early reports...

18.02.2024 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Why Donald Cameron should be in the Lords

Finally, Rishi Sunak has put a half-decent Cameron in the House of Lords. In raising Donald Cameron to the peerage and appointing him parliamentary...

10.02.2024 5

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Javier Milei is no populist

When Javier Milei visited Israel and announced that he would be moving Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem, I suppose that was terribly...

07.02.2024 9

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Nothing will change after Mike Freer stands down

Nothing will change in the wake of Mike Freer’s decision to stand down. That a Member of Parliament says he is leaving politics because of...

01.02.2024 6

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Spain and the mystery of Scotland’s Covid travel list

Nicola Sturgeon had a very rough time at the UK Covid-19 inquiry in Edinburgh yesterday. A sticky moment in particular was when Scottish cabinet...

01.02.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

David Cameron is in a muddle over Palestine

The definition of madness, commonly attributed to Albert Einstein, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. In all...

31.01.2024 40

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

John Fetterman’s noble support for Israel should be no surprise

Politicians are like bad boys: never fall in love with them, they’ll always hurt you in the end. But try as I might, and I have tried mightily, I...

28.01.2024 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

How John Fetterman’s support for Israel made him a target for Democrats

Politicians are like bad boys: never fall in love with them, they’ll always hurt you in the end. But try as I might, and I have tried mightily, I...

28.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

It doesn’t matter if Sunak is replaced

Sir Simon Clarke’s call to replace Rishi Sunak leans heavily on Tory MPs being in denial about the scale of defeat that could be heading their...

24.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill is a sham

In voting through the government’s Rwanda Bill, Conservative MPs have made a declaration: they want to reduce illegal immigration but they don’t...

18.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Could a 1997-style wipeout spell the end of the Tories?

There is not a crumb of comfort for the Conservatives in the YouGov poll splashed across the front of this morning’s Daily Telegraph. It forecasts...

15.01.2024 6

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Why isn’t the Sun backing Starmer?

The Sun’s reporting on Sir Keir Starmer’s legal activities is strident and therefore curious. The paper reports, in thunderous terms, on a number...

10.01.2024 8

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The Reform party is just another Thatcherite redux

What exactly does the Reform party stand for? Helpfully, its leader Richard Tice gave a press conference on Wednesday at which he sketched out some...

05.01.2024 4

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

London / Who will remind the Met Police of their duties?

On Saturday, according to the Daily Telegraph, pro-Palestinian protestors ‘brought Oxford Street to a standstill on one of the busiest shopping days...

24.12.2023 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The two-state solution is dead

Tzipi Hotovely has committed the gravest sin in diplomacy: speaking candidly. In an interview with Sky News, Israel’s ambassador to the Court of St...

16.12.2023 30

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

It’s time to crack down on the SNP’s foreign affairs freelancing

For those who still believe in that old-fashioned thing called the British constitution, there has come a glimmer of hope from an unlikely source....

11.12.2023 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The SNP should have listened to Kate Forbes

Kate Forbes has called on the Scottish Government to accept Friday’s judgment on its controversial gender legislation. The Gender Recognition Reform...

09.12.2023 4

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Barbara Rymell deserved dignity

There is no getting around the death of Barbara Rymell. When I read the Telegraph’s story about this 91-year-old who died while care home staff...

07.12.2023 20

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Licence fee row / The Tories are governing for Westminster obsessives

You know the Tories are worried about their core vote when they start talking tough on the BBC licence fee. Rishi Sunak took time out of his Cop28...

04.12.2023 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

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